13/11/2021
Food supplements
A third of the population living in western countries take food supplements regularly.
A vitamin boost to prepare for winter, omega-3 to perk up your memory before an exam, or calcium to strengthen bones… Successful advertising campaigns have made taking food supplements second nature in today’s world. The number of consumers worldwide is growing just as fast as the variety of products and their alleged effects. More than half of all adults take them in the United States, with women and the elderly comprising the majority of consumers. In Europe, rates of consumption are 59% in Denmark, 43% in Germany, 20% in France and 9% in Spain.1
Yet what exactly is a food supplement? It is a concentrated source of nutrients, either vitamins (especially A, B, C, D and E), minerals (calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, sodium, copper etc.) or other substances that have a nutritional or physiological effect. As their name suggests, food supplements are not intended to replace a varied and balanced diet, but to supplement it. They come in all shapes and forms, such as capsules, lozenges, tablets, powders, vials of liquid etc., and are sold in chemist’s, in supermarkets, over the Internet and sometimes in specialised stores (such as General Nutrition Centers in the United States).
In the same way as consumption varies, the classification of dietary supplements also differs from one country to another. According to Pierre-Yves Rodondi of the IUMSP University Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Lausanne, Switzerland, “Several European countries and the United States classify herbal products as food supplements. In other European countries, such as Switzerland, plant-based preparations are monitored by the authorities and are not considered to be food.” Therefore, plants such as kava, St John’s wort, and valerian are available in American supermarkets, but not necessarily in Europe.